Giving Up Smoking: Part V Happy Ever Afterness

I wonder if it’s occurred to anyone that after the US stopped importing cigars from Cuba the average national IQ began to decline. Looking at what the various governments have been up to since they told Fidel to go take a hike it seems like a possible conclusion. Perhaps they still have to discover what I discovered: cigars make the little grey cells get down and boogie. As soon as my eyes lighted on the box of Cohibas I knew life was going to be good once more. After all, I hadn’t stopped smoking for health, social, or religious . . . → Read More: Giving Up Smoking: Part V Happy Ever Afterness

Giving Up Smoking Part IV: When is a Cigarette Not a Cigarette or I Wish Paddy Chayefsky Was Still Around

Jesus Christ rose again from the dead; Neil Diamond, Tom Jones, the Eagles and the Marie Celeste all came back – but the Marie Celeste came back without her crew… Okay bad example. Let’s move on, the point for me was, Could I come back from mental oblivion? Being incapable of thought wasn’t all that bad. It gave me a warm sense of brotherhood with a large, hitherto alienated section of humanity. But I knew it also had its downside even if I couldn’t pin down precisely what that was and wouldn’t have been capable of expressing it in words. . . . → Read More: Giving Up Smoking Part IV: When is a Cigarette Not a Cigarette or I Wish Paddy Chayefsky Was Still Around

Giving Up Smoking Part III: Is There Life After Brain Death?

Times were perilous but I was insensible to the danger. For the next two weeks, I didn’t do any work (although I did a lot of eating, drinking, running and reading). When I received an assignment by email I’d type some nit-picky question about an inconsequential detail and fire it back, knowing it would be another 14 hours before I’d need to ask another question – or confess that I was no longer to be numbered among the sentient. One of the advantages of being incapable of thought was that I didn’t dwell on the problem at all. I was . . . → Read More: Giving Up Smoking Part III: Is There Life After Brain Death?